Learn About Firewall Evolution from Packet Filter to Next Generation

The late nineteen seventies brought the emergence of local area networks (LANs) and connected systems that allowed companies to provide employees with the ability to communicate with one another and transfer data across a network.

LANs made interoffice electronic communication, referred to as e-mail, possible. The network was local to the company, private, and proprietary, and it supported a finite number of users. The principle form of LAN security was password protection.

By the early nineteen eighties, multiprotocol routers interconnecting different networks and directing traffic among them were introduced. Routers and other Internet technology put global electronic reach within the grasp of computer users. Routers that were used to direct traffic across the Internet also included access control software to secure traffic transmission and data access.